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The discourses of parenting by medical specialists have been presented by the specialists as “appropriate” way for child raising and publicized to a range of audience. This research aims at analyzing the relationship between language and ideologies in discourse of parenting by medical specialists that were presented in Facebook page during October 4, 2018 and December 31, 2017. Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough 1995) is adopted as analytical framework. The analysis reveals that the discourses of parenting by medical specialists represent three ideologies namely the ideology of “positive” parenting, the ideology on relationship between family members, and the ideology on violence in Thai society. These three ideologies are interrelated. It is found that thirty-five linguistic devices are adopted for representing these ideologies. These devices can be categorized into three groups namely 1) devices for demonstrating scientific ground and principles, 2) devices for expressing an authoritative voice, and 3) devices for expressing a discourse of friendship. The first group comprises fourteen devices; for instance, using of scientific terms, using of legislative terms, and using of cause and effect semantic structure of statements. The second group comprises nineteen devices; for example, the use of contrastive terms of appraisement, the use of lexical terms with appraising implication, and the use of lexical terms signifying effective results. The last group consists of two devices including the use of intertextuality and the use of a casual language style. Overall, these devices demonstrate that in the parenting discourse, the medical specialists tend to positively present their ideas while negatively present others’ ideas. The analysis of discursive practice reveals that the texts of parenting discourse aims at proposing the ideas of “positive” parenting and persuading the readers to take the advices. The texts were publicized in virtual space via online social media which made them easier to be reproduced and distributed to a wide audience. The authoritative voice aiming for instructing and guiding the audience is mainly adopted in the texts. However, the casual speech style is also adopted making the texts to appear more appealing as a discourse of friendship. The use of these strategies leads to the perception that the parenting discourse by the medical specialists is reliable and trustworthy resources created with good intentions for the audience. Therefore, the readers should take and follow the advices. In terms of order of discourse, the texts demonstrate a combination between child raising discourse and scientific discourse. This blending indicates how the medical specialists are crossing the line into the household domain in Thai society. This leads to the combination between discursive practices of the child raising and the medical advising. Thus, it is highly possible that the ideologies represented in this new discourse can have certain influences upon parents in Thai society who are the main target audience. In terms of analysis of socio-cultural practices, it is found that there are five socio-cultural situations and factors affecting the text production and text consumption including 1) the advent of positive parenting ideology from the western culture; 2) original ways of child raising in Thai society; 3) fundamental conditions of Thai society; 4) the concept of individualism and 5) the problems caused by the use of force and violence in Thai society. The analysis reveals that ideological effects that may be caused by this discourse include 1) an introduction of “desirable” ways of child raising to readers in Thai society; 2) an attempt to redefine the relationship patterns among family members; 3) the construction of the representation of “desirable” members of Thai society and 4) the representation of the impact caused by the use of force and violence in Thai society in order to legitimize and call for an adjustment of child raising in Thai society. In conclusion, the findings of this study reveal how the medical specialists adopt language as devices for constructing and representing the ideologies on child raising and demonstrate the roles of the “positive” parenting discourse in shaping the ideas of the relationship among family members. It is anticipated that the findings of this research may help raising the readers’ awareness of the biased and stereotypical judgement of the parenting discourse by the medical specialists upon the ways of child raising in Thai society. In fact, every pattern of child raising tend to have both “positive” or “negative” aspects. Thus, parents should consider them carefully in order to select an appropriate way for raising their children. In so doing, they will not be manipulated by the biased judgement by certain discourse. |
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